Battle of Brunn

The Battle of Brunn was a minor battle of the Bohemian Revolt which occurred in 1618 at the start of the Thirty Years' War. A small Bohemian Protestant army under Ladislav Velen von Zerotein defeated a small Austrian Catholic army near the Catholic-majority city of Brunn, which had rebelled against Protestant rule. The skirmish saw Rudolf von Tiefenbach's small Austrian force be annihilated in one of the first clashes of the war, and it was immediately followed with Brunn's fall to the Protestants, who massacred its disloyal Catholic inhabitants.

Background
In 1618, the Protestant nobility of Bohemia rose in rebellion against the Habsburg dynasty due to Ferdinand of Styria's hardline Catholicism, which became a clear threat to Bohemia's freedom of religion when Ferdinand was elected King of Bohemia. The Protestant nobility deposed Ferdinand and declared war on the Habsburgs, leaving them at war with the Archduchy of Austria, Spain, Bavaria, and the Catholic League. While the Bohemian Revolt was led by Bohemian Protestant nobles, many Bohemians continued to practice Catholicism, and, in cities such as Brunn (58% Catholic and only 27% Protestant) and Eger, the Catholic populace rioted before ousting the Protestant garrisons. Ladislav Velen von Zerotein was sent with a Bohemian Protestant army to reclaim Brunn, and, along the way, he spotted an Austrian army under Rudolf von Tiefenbach to the west of the city. The two armies met in battle at evening.

Battle
The Bohemian army outnumbered the Austrian force, which consisted mainly of tercio pikemen. Both forces notably included contingents of clergymen, with the Bohemian troops being spurred on by Protestant reformers, while the Imperial force was inspired by the presence of several Jesuit priests armed only with cross staffs. The Bohemian army arrayed itself in front of the Imperial force, with the Bohemian cavalry being sent to attack the Imperial army's cannon as the infantry from both sides clashed. The Bohemian army used its grenadiers efficiently, throwing flammable grenades at the tightly-packed tercios to inflict heavy losses. However, the tercios fought to the death, and one regiment of Bohemian pikemen was reduced to 3 soldiers after annihilating an entire tercio regiment. Tiefenbach was wounded when the Bohemian pikemen and cavalry charged him and his bodyguards, and the Imperials were further demoralized when their baggage train was destroyed by the grenadiers. The Imperial army was nearly annihilated, with 250 of the 283 Austrians being killed or captured. The 32 Austrian prisoners were held for ransom by the Bohemians; when the Austrians refused to ransom their soldiers, the Bohemians had no choice but to hang all of them.

Aftermath
Brunn was then placed under siege by Zerotein's army, which faced 559 Catholic rebels under Lothar Dietrich. The Bohemians assaulted the city with siege works a month later and took the city with 18 losses, and the Protestants retaliated against the Catholics by massacring 3,722 civilians and looting 1,785 florins from the city. Brunn was rebuilt shortly after, and its inhabitants remained loyal to the Protestant nobility out of fear.